Bar Terra

This is the last restaurant in our Napa culinary tour of Summer 2013. If I had not seen the picture of the building on Yelp; I would've probably been wondering where the building was. There was no discernible sign at the front of the restaurant; the restaurant is situated within an unassuming quaint brick building.

When you enter, you couldn't be mistaken since you can see the Michelin star plaque on the wall. Bar Terra is on your right and Terra is on your left.

Terra is Bar Terra's sister restaurant; fine dining setting with tasting menu option. Bar Terra is more casual setting with a bar (duh).

Since I have not dined at Terra, I could not compare with Bar Terra. But one thing is for sure; just like its building that is unassuming; Bar Terra's offering is unassumingly excellent.

Here goes the story... As I mentioned earlier this restaurant was our last leg in our culinary tour; by that time we had been dining in many many finest restaurants in the area (including one where we thought we could've had our laundry done while dining ;)); so we had been ready to just say "meh, it's good just like the rest of them". You could say we were jaded in a restaurant way...

So that's one. Another one is the service started out "not optimal". Our waiter couldn't keep track who's ordering which when the food arrived.

But anyways, it was smooth and enjoyable sailing afterwards. All of our food were excellent. All the ingredients tasted fresh and were put to good use.

We ordered:
- grilled cauliflower
- roasted pedrons
- house pickles: kimchi
- spaghettini with roasted tomato for the kids; after the kids finish their spaghettini, some of the adults scavenged the remaining grilled tomatoes and were impressed by the quality of the tomatoes.
- fried buttermilk quail
- that night's soup (forgot what it was)
- sake marinated black cod with ravioli in some sauce - excellent, got two thumbs up from one of the kids. Fish was perfectly marinated and succulent. Ravioli was refined; inside and out - the sauce was the air that it breathed.
- the brandt family strip; this one we ordered at the end because we were still hungry and wanted to try their other stuff on their menu. Steak was cooked to perfection; true to the beef quality and seasoned justly.

I said a bit about the service at the beginning; but to be fair, their service is very good considering one of us in the party were a bit impatient about getting their order put in early (read: hungry kids :)) and another was upset about the order mixup. But the waiters were still polite and professional.

All in all, Bar Terra is a gem in St. Helena.

p.s.
I am wondering about their Tokyo Ramen now... Whether it would be good or not. I got traumatized trying Japanese ramen not in a proper Ramen house in the past. I guess I might try that next time...,

Best meal of the trip.

So many unique choices that you could spend half an hour trying to narrow it down to what you want. Uni custard was so rich and flavorful - a really great preparation. Ramen bowl was good, but not stand out, wouldn't order again if I returned. Lobster tortellini were so tasty we ordered seconds. You could return here 10 times and have 10 completely different meals, which is a good thing.

We were comped a few desserts by the kitchen out of pure kindness, and even though I felt like my stomach was going to rupture, each plate was clean when we were done.

Waiter/bartender was an old pro. Quick with the wit and makes a mean martini.

Only complaint is that it's a little tough to find. I don't recall seeing a sign outside - it just looks like an office building.

Highly recommended for a splurge or a special occasion.

Dear baby Jesus,

Thank you for Bar Terra. Not only are they beautiful, they have a fine bartender who knows his drinks and customers. Genius. The ramen here is tender and made for angels. The broth is so good I want to swim in it. Please protect it and keep it safe until I return one day.

Blessed day!